49 Facts About Henri Toivonen

Henri Pauli Toivonen was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyvaskyla, the home of Rally Finland.

Henri Toivonen had the record of being the youngest driver ever to win a world rally until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22.

Henri Toivonen died in a crash on 2 May 1986 while leading the Tour de Corse rally in Corsica.

Henri Toivonen started his career in circuit racing and was very competitive on tarmac.

Henri Toivonen had strong ties to rallying at an early age.

Henri Toivonen was born in Jyvaskyla, the city which has hosted the Rally Finland since 1951.

Henri Toivonen's father, Pauli Toivonen, was a successful international rally driver who would go on to win the Monte Carlo, 1000 Lakes and Acropolis rallies and become the 1968 European Rally Champion.

Henri Toivonen learned to drive when he was five years old, but despite his rallying connections, started competition in circuit racing.

Henri Toivonen began with karts and won the Finnish Cup in touring cars before switching to Formula Vee, winning one round of the Scandinavian Championship in his first year.

Henri Toivonen graduated to Formula Super Vee the following year and won a round of the European Championship, as well as becoming the 1977 Finnish Champion in the Formula Vee class.

Henri Toivonen's kart was purchased by the parents of a 6-year-old Mika Hakkinen, who would later be a two-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion.

Henri Toivonen retired from the rally during the 36th special stage due to a broken sump.

Henri Toivonen started his 1978 season at the Arctic Rally, the second round of both the European Rally Championship and World Rally Championship's "FIA Cup for Drivers", the predecessor to the official drivers' world championship which was established in 1979.

Henri Toivonen went on to compete in two world championship rallies for Citroen.

At his home event, Henri Toivonen had to retire due to an engine failure, but he finished ninth at the RAC Rally.

That same year, Henri Toivonen captured his first rally win at the Nordic Rally, an event in the Finnish Rally Championship.

Henri Toivonen competed in two WRC events: the 1000 Lakes with a Fiat 131 Abarth and the RAC with a Ford Escort RS.

Henri Toivonen retired from both, but at his home event he had been matching the pace of the leaders before leaving the road.

Henri Toivonen's exuberant driving style often led to crashes, and his results were often not representative of his pace.

At the 1000 Lakes Rally, Henri Toivonen retired due to an accident during the 11th special stage.

Henri Toivonen's rear-wheel drive Group 2 Sunbeam Lotus was now less competitive against the Group 4 cars and the all-wheel-drive Audi Quattro, but despite four retirements, the second places at Rally Portugal and Sanremo, as well as a fifth place at the Monte Carlo Rally, resulted in a seventh place overall in the drivers' world championship.

Henri Toivonen competed in the last round of the British Open Rally Championship, the Audi Sport International Rally, and won the event.

Henri Toivonen's teammates were Ari Vatanen, who had won the previous year's championship, the 1980 and 1982 world champion Walter Rohrl and Jimmy McRae, the previous year's British Rally Champion and father of future rally star Colin McRae.

Henri Toivonen competed in only four more WRC events, but finished on the podium twice, at the Acropolis Rally and at the RAC Rally.

Henri Toivonen made a guest appearance in one round of the British Formula Three circuit racing championship, where he finished tenth driving a Ralt RT3.

Henri Toivonen continued with Opel into the 1983 season, now driving the Manta 400, which took advantage of the new Group B regulations.

Henri Toivonen achieved a win at the Manx International Rally, a round of the British Open Rally Championship and the European Rally Championship, in the Isle of Man, at his first attempt.

Henri Toivonen finished first at the Mille Pistes rally in France, but the organisers decided to ban the Group B cars halfway through the event.

Henri Toivonen drove a Ferrari 308 GTB at the San Marino Rally, where he was co-driven by Juha Piironen for the first time.

Henri Toivonen only practiced the car at Imola and did not race, but in the next race at Mugello, partnered with Derek Bell and Jonathan Palmer, he finished third.

Henri Toivonen was linked to the lead drive at the Peugeot Talbot Sport, Peugeot's new factory World Rally Championship team, but eventually signed to drive a Porsche 911 SC RS for the Rothmans-sponsored Porsche factory team in the European Rally Championship.

Henri Toivonen started with two retirements, a third and a second place, but went on to win five rallies in a row and led the championship from Italian Lancia driver Carlo Capone.

Henri Toivonen missed several events and finished second in the championship behind Capone.

Henri Toivonen chose to become a full-fledged Lancia driver for the 1985 season.

The 1985 season started badly when Henri Toivonen crashed his Lancia 037 into a brick wall at the Rally Costa Smeralda, in the European Championship, seriously injuring his back and breaking three vertebrae in his neck.

Henri Toivonen finished third at the next rally in Sanremo, his final event with the car.

The 037 did not suit Henri Toivonen's driving style and had fallen well behind Audi and Peugeot in terms of performance, as it was rear-wheel drive and had only 325 horsepower compared to the 440 of Peugeot and 500 of Audi.

Henri Toivonen's victory caused his father to comment "now the name of Toivonen has been cleared".

The 1986 Tour de Corse, a world rally on narrow and very twisty mountain roads around the island of Corsica, began on Thursday, 1 May Henri Toivonen had a sore throat and was suffering from the flu, but he insisted on driving after having lost his championship lead during the last three rallies due to retiring the car in Sweden, the Lancia team withdrawing from the tragic Portugal event and Henri Toivonen not even competing in the Kenyan Safari Rally.

Henri Toivonen was complaining about the car being too fast and powerful for a rally like the Tour de Corse.

Henri Toivonen left behind wife Erja and two young children, son Markus and daughter Arla, while Cresto was single with no children.

Henri Toivonen's crash remains a mystery because it had no close witnesses.

Walter Rohrl later confirmed that Henri Toivonen was taking medicine for his flu.

At least one person who attended the aftermath of the crash reported that there were no skid marks on the tarmac, fuelling speculation that Henri Toivonen could have suddenly lost consciousness at the wheel, but the cause of the crash is still unknown.

Henri Toivonen was known as a competitive driver both on loose and tarmac surfaces, and he found it difficult to choose between circuit racing and rallying.

Henri Toivonen often complained about the S4 during TV interviews, often saying the car was difficult to drive- particularly on tarmac- where more power could be put down, therefore making the car faster in such conditions.

Henri Toivonen was buried in Espoo, where his family moved from Jyvaskyla when Henri Toivonen was still very young.

The memorial place always has an unopened bottle of Martini, which is a reference to Henri Toivonen's Martini-sponsored Lancia factory team.

Harri Henri Toivonen quit his racing career in 2002, ending the 40-year racing history of the Henri Toivonen family.